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Acts of Worship

Growing up in Makkah | His Hajj Story Ep. 1

July 11, 2021Dr. Omar Suleiman

Before Islam, the Quraysh knew the Ka’bah was special, but they misused the holy site in pursuit of idolatry. As a result, the Prophet ﷺ avoided the Ka’bah in his early years, wishing to stay away from shirk and obscenity. But that would change once he received revelation. As he learned about what the Ka’bah truly stood for—a symbol of monotheism in a lost world—he began to spend more time there to establish the rituals of Hajj.

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Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
I think most people would be surprised to know that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam actually did not want to be anywhere near the Ka'bah growing up. And that's not because he had a problem with the Ka'bah, but because everything that was happening around the Ka'bah was everything that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam hated. It was idol worship. It was the place where all the festivals took place. And in those festivals, you had all the obscenities, all the displays that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam did not want to see, all the alcohol, all the boasting about who your tribe was, and the blood money, and all these things that Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam shunned because of the goodness that Allah had put inside of him. But once the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam knew who he actually was, when Allah bestowed the message upon him, then it became clear to him that this place was a special place, and his attachment to it as a result of that would grow for the rest of his life. Even the people of Mecca didn't really understand what it was about the Ka'bah that was so special. They believed in multiple gods. They didn't really believe in an afterlife. They didn't know what was protecting the Ka'bah, but they knew something was protecting the Ka'bah because many of them had witnessed Ta'amu l-Fil. They witnessed the year that Abraha and his army had been destroyed trying to attack the Ka'bah. And so there was this general respect for the Ka'bah, even by the polytheists, and of course it became the central location for everything else that they did anyway, and they used the idols to give themselves power and to give themselves a certain status in Arabia. However, five years before the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam receives prophethood, so he was 35 years old, there was this flood that came to Mecca and it really damaged the Ka'bah. There's also a narration about a woman that wanted to put some incense on the Ka'bah and she ended up burning a part of it. So the Ka'bah was damaged, the structure was damaged, and they knew they
had to reconstruct it, but knowing what happened to Abraha's army, they were afraid of how they would go about that. So they're trying to decide, do we take a part of it and fix it? Do we remove the bricks altogether and then rebuild it? How are we supposed to rebuild the Ka'bah? So Al-Waleed Ibn Al-Mughirah, he stands up, and it's ironic knowing the wickedness of Al-Waleed pointed to in the Quran later on. He said, look, are you people trying to destroy the Ka'bah or are you trying to rectify it? Are you Mufsidun or Muslihun? Right? The language that we know in the Quran. Are you people that are trying to corrupt or are you trying to rectify? They said, we're just trying to fix the Ka'bah, we're trying to repair it. He said, Allah, and of course they refer to Allah amongst all of their other gods. He said, Allah won't destroy the Muslihun. He won't destroy the people that are trying to fix the Ka'bah. So he takes an ax himself and he starts to repair the Ka'bah. He starts to do away with some of the bricks of the Ka'bah. And he says, see, nothing happens. They said, okay, let's wait a whole day and night to make sure that your hand doesn't fall off or lightning doesn't strike you or something terrible doesn't happen to you. So nothing happened to Al-Wareed. So they get together and they say, okay, let's rebuild the Ka'bah. But Abu Jahl has an announcement. He says, let's only use the pure money that we have earned. So we're not going to use any of the money that has gone towards gambling, that has gone towards prostitution, that has gone towards alcohol, that has been attained through wronging people, none of the usury or the riba. We just want to use our pure sources of income, which of course would be a problem for them because they didn't have enough then to rebuild the entire Ka'bah properly. So they're starting to rebuild the Ka'bah and they're saying, Allahumma la nureedu illa khaira. Oh Allah, we only want to do good. Please do not destroy us as we are repairing this Ka'bah. And as they rebuilt the Ka'bah, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam told Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala Anha years later, that your people rebuilt the Ka'bah wrong. It used to be a rectangle shape when Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam built it. And the door was to the ground so that people could go in the Ka'bah
and come out. But they ran out of money, so they built it as a cube shape and they raised the door so that only the elites of Quraysh would be able to enter in and they'd be able to govern who was able to go into the Ka'bah and who would be prohibited. So they rebuilt the Ka'bah wrong, but that was what their money allowed them to do. And of course, the door represented everything else that they did with the idols and with their concept of God at the time and religion at the time. But then came the dispute. Who's going to put Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, the black stone, in its place? Because all of these things that were retained after Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam, they maintained some of the status of those things and it was understood Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, the black stone, was special. They didn't know what was special about it, but it was special. And whichever tribe was going to take the black stone and put it back was going to have a status that would be unrivaled from that point onwards. So they argue about it. Who's going to be the tribe that gets the honor of putting the black stone there? Some of the tribes, they stake the claim based upon, you know, their wealth, based upon their power, based upon their prominence. Some of them claim to be there for a longer time. Some of them said, well, we're usually the ones that serve the people that come for Hajj or come for Umrah, so we should be the ones to do it. So every tribe is making a claim and it got so intense that by the time a week passed, they were about to fight each other in the Haram. So these tribes were actually now getting their weapons prepared and they were about to turn on each other. Then at that point, a man by the name of Abu Umayyah Al-Makhzumi stands up and this would be the future father-in-law of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. Even though he wouldn't live to see his daughter marry the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, this would be the future father-in-law of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So who is he? Well, I'll give you a clue. He's the father of a woman who helped the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in a similar predicament during Hudaybiyyah. And that is Umm Salamah radiAllahu ta'ala Anha, who would famously advise the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam on what to do
when they were unable to move forward for Umrah in Hudaybiyyah. So this is Abu Umayyah Al-Makhzumi. He's also a very wise man clearly and you can see that Umm Salamah radiAllahu ta'ala Anha inherited some of that from him. He says, listen, we're not going to solve this amongst ourselves. All the tribes are going to make their claims, but let's agree that the first person to walk through that gate of Bani Shaybah, which is known as Bab As-Salam, whoever comes through that gate, we're going to give them the ability, give them the choice to put the black stone as they see fit. Wa radha bi hukmihi and everyone be pleased with his judgment. So they said, okay, fine, that makes sense. So let's keep it random. So they sat down and they're staring at that gate to see who's going to come through and Muhammad SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam walks through that gate. He was not a rich man. He was not a powerful man, but Al-Ameen radiIna, they said, he is the trustworthy one. We're pleased. He is the trustworthy one. We're pleased. They knew the character of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam and so they were happy that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was going to be the one to carry out that task. Now the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam could have made a claim at that point for Banu Hashim and Banu Hashim had their status in society already and were known for their generosity. He could have said, all right, Banu Hashim, let's do it. And every other tribe, too bad you agree to the condition. But instead the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, in the spirit that would come in Islam as well, he says, give me a thawb and put it on the ground, a cloth and put it on the ground and let's place the black stone in the middle of that cloth. And then the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam called for every tribal head to come and to grab one side of the cloth. So all of the tribes came together. They picked up the black stone in that cloth and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said, follow me to the Kaaba. They went to the Kaaba. Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he picked it up and he put it in his place. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam did not know at that point that this was the stone from Al-Jannah, the stone from Paradise. SubhanAllah, all those narrations would come later.
But he saved them SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam from bloodshed. He saved them from taking that time which was supposed to be a unifying moment in Mecca and turning into a divisive moment. And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam also once again solidified his reputation in society as a man, not just of high moral character, but a man who always wanted good for the entirety of Mecca, not just his people. Now after that, the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he didn't used to do Ibadah around the Kaaba. He didn't used to worship around the Kaaba. As we said, he really didn't care for the festivals or the obscenities. He did take part SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam in rebuilding the Kaaba because that was a good thing to do. Just like Hilf al-Fudul, the pledge where all of the tribes would agree upon something noble. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam goes to the Kaaba for that. But in rebuilding the Kaaba, there is an incident there as well where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la protects the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam from something that is not befitting of the Prophet. Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would put the stones on his back as he was walking to the Kaaba because he did not want to partake in what the others would do, which was to take their bottom cloth and lift it up and hold the stones, thereby exposing their private parts. So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, out of his modesty, did not want to expose his private parts, which was common at the time. And as the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is carrying the stones on his back, Al-Abbas SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam says to him, oh my nephew, why don't you do what everybody else is doing? Just lift up your Izar, lift up your bottom garment, put the stones there and it'll protect you from the heat. Just as the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam gave into that and he started to do that, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la caused the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam to fall unconscious. And Allah protected the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam from ever exposing his awrah, ever exposing his private parts again, which was a common practice of the people of Mecca. Now what about after that? When the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam receives revelation and the people of Mecca are carrying on with their Hajj, yes, they had a Hajj, but it wasn't like our Hajj. They had all types of practices,
all types of ways of enforcing tribal superiority, all types of innovations, but still Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam has received revelation at the age of 40 and he knows that the Kaaba is the house that was built by Ibrahim Alayhi Salam to revive the message of Tawheed of which he would be the reviver of that monotheism and he's witnessing this on an annual basis. So would the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam take part in the Hajj? There's a narration from Jubair bin Mut'im radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu who took a long time to become Muslim. He says that in the days of ignorance, he says, Adlaltu ba'iranni. He said, I lost one of my camels one time. Fadhabtu atlubuhu yawma arafa. So I went looking for that camel on the day of Arafa. Faraitu nabiyya SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam waqifan fi Arafa. So I saw the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam standing in Arafa and Quraysh would not go to Arafa. They used to send the poor people towards Arafa and they stayed within the Haram. So he was confused why the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was standing in Arafa and he knew the insistence of their way. So he said, I thought to myself, ma sha'nuha huna? What is he doing over here? But I didn't ask him anything at that point. So what do we know about the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam Hajj? You might be surprised to know that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam indeed did multiple Hajj's before the Hijrah, before the migration. You have the narration of Jubair bin Abdullah radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu which says two Hajj's for sure before the migration. And some scholars say that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam did the Hajj every single year between prophethood and the migration. However, he would avoid the things that Quraysh would do, the idol worship and such. Just like the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would do Talaaf around the Kaaba, just like he would pray in front of the Kaaba, but he would not pay heed to the idols that were around the Kaaba. So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam would do Hajj on a regular basis even before the Hijrah. And it was in fact in those last few years in Mecca where one
of the most defining incidents of the Seerah would happen during the days of Hajj. It was the 11th year after prophethood, the year after Amul Huzn, the year after the year of grief, that the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is going out and he's meeting the various tribes that are coming from outside during the night time so that the people of Mecca would not know. And he's introducing them to Islam. He's trying with everybody SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. He's trying with the small tribes, the known tribes, the large tribes, the unknown tribes. He's just going to find anyone that, or he's attempting to find anyone that is going to believe in his message. So he goes out at night and he has with him Abu Bakr and Ali, may Allah be pleased with them. And he talks to these different groups and suddenly he passes by this group of six young men. And these six young men are there in Mina and they heard the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam talking to some of the more known tribes and they were curious about what the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam had to say as well because these six young men were from Yathrib and they had been exposed to Jewish tribes that told them about Tawheed, that told them about monotheism and that also told them about a prophet that was to come. And so the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam sees these six youth from this place called Yathrib and they're interested in hearing what the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam has to say and the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam never overlooks anyone when it comes to da'wah. So the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam says to them, are you the allies of the Jews? And they say yes. He says, well why don't you sit with me and listen to what I have to say. So there they are in Mina on the 11th day of the Hijjah, in the 11th year after prophethood and that conversation with six young men As'ad ibn Zurarah, Auf ibn Harith, Rafi' ibn Malik, Qutba ibn Amir, Uqba ibn Amir and Jabir ibn Abdullah. That conversation with those six young men was going to change the entire course of history as we have it. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam presents Islam to them
and these six young men, they say what you're saying makes sense and the Jews have already told us about a prophet that is to come. Why don't we hasten and believe in you before it gets back to them and we will go back and call our people to Islam. And they say, may it be through you that Allah reconciles our differences, brings our hearts together and establishes us upon this beautiful message of monotheism that you have brought and indeed that would be the society of Al Medina.
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